Huge Bubble Cloud over Beijing Skies Mystifies Observers

Transcript: And finally… it was quite a sight over the skies of Beijing Thursday. A mysterious bubble cloud of sorts caught the attention of many in the city. The seemingly unique phenomenon has become somewhat of a hit on the Internet.

Photos were posted online of a mysteriously huge bubble cloud over the skies of Beijing and surrounding areas Thursday, which raised concerns and discussions among netizens.

“At first, it’s relatively small and bright, the upper part is something like a semi-circle, a spherical ring of light, it’s obviously becoming bigger and bigger then.”

When the observation team set their instruments at the bubble, it gradually became bigger and thinner. The entire occurrence lasted for less than 15 minutes. Observers took pictures of the whole process and posted them online.

Staff members at the Beijing Planetarium believe it was the same phenomenon after an analysis of time and space.

“Of course people had a lot of discussions, personally I think it’s a kind of meteor or a phenomenon in terrestrial space.”

Experts say the bubble cloud was unlikely a natural phenomenon. Judging from the pictures, the bubble cloud was hundreds of miles away from observers in Beijing.

[Zhu Jin, Curator, Beijing Planetarium]:
“It must have been caused by human beings, not nature or other things like that.”

In less than one day more than 100 comments were posted about the unusual phenomenon. Many of those who commented said they had seen a similar bubble cloud in the provinces of Shenyang, Shanxi, and Zhejiang.